It was our second doggie film in two says, and we hoped it wasn't as emotional as yesterday's.
We needn't have worried.
***Spoilers in this paragraph***
On a superficial level, this film is enjoyable. It's an animation about the Queen's top dog, who gets tricked by his jealous "best friend" into leaving the palace. He ends up in the pound, where he meets some other dogs who become his true friends and help him get back into the palace. They arrive back in time to stop the coronation of ex-best friend, and it all works out in the end.
***End of Spoilers*** (that matter)
This film is terrifying. Yes, most of the terror will go over the heads of kids (my daughter said she enjoyed the film), but it still normalises dysfunction. Since I've got home I had a quick google to see if other people saw what I saw, and whilst I'm pleased I'm not the only one (see links below), it's scary how much I didn't notice (eg Trump saying "grab some puppy"!!!).
The worst scene for me was the one between Rex (the Queen's corgi) and Mitzi (President Trump's [fictitious] corgi). The Queen and Trump, having decided that their dogs should marry, leave the dogs alone to get acquainted. Rex, however, isn't interested. The scene that unfolds for what felt like hours, was the 'fun' of Mitzi chasing Rex, trying to kiss him (and more), ignoring his pleas, ignoring him saying "No", basically saying that you can ignore the consent of the other person. In this #MeToo era, this is a horrendous thing to be teaching our children. We would never allow children to watch such a scene if it was being acted by humans, but cartoon dogs - it's fine. Not only that, it totally minimises the fact that men can be harassed, abused and raped too. It is no more 'fun' because the perpetrator was a woman, than if it were a man.
(And yes, things happen in cartoons that we wouldn't watch in real life - eg the road runner and an anvil - but the whole premise and style of that cartoon to the anthropomorphism in The Queen's Corgi is different.)
The violence of the fight club didn't bother me tbh (maybe my sensitivities are misplaced? Having read other reviews, I can see that other peple didn't like the reference - I just think they'd go over kids' heads) though I didn't like the fact the dog was put in the washing machine for training. It is not uncommon for there to be news reports of dogs and cats to be put in washing machines (I won't give links because it's horrible).
Finally, ignoring that Buckingham Palace doesn't have any working fire alarms or smoke detectors (a fire of that size should have been detected), at the very end of the film Charlie (ex-best friend dog) is forced to marry Mitzi, and everyone is happy that the systematic rape and abuse is not happening to Rex. The End.
Independent's Review 1/5
Movies4Kids Review 2/5
Guardian's Review 2/5
Flickering Myth's Review 1/5
JumpCut Online's Review 0/5
After watching the film, and reading the views of others, I had to go back to Into Film to see why they included it within this year's festival. They say this film has the themes of Animation [yes] and Anti-Bullying [yes, now I think back to it, there is a scene in the pound when Rex stands up to a bully, but it is by far and away not my main memory of this film]. I think it is quite telling that on the Into Film site, there are currently 4 reviews, all by children. Unfortunately, I can't seem to work out how to add my review to the site, without setting up a Film Club (which I don't want to do).
No comments:
Post a Comment